He also spoke about the way Dodson had always favored Remko, treating him more like a son than a soldier. That part Aryers didn’t even have to fabricate. With a witness’s testimony it hadn’t been hard for Damien to convince the Authority to imprison Dodson. Aryers had to serve prison time as well, a short sentence that Damien had warned him about but with the promise that when he was released, he and his family would never have to work again. Damien had no intention of following through on this lofty promise, but by the time Aryers was released the world would be a different place. Damien would make sure of it.
“They escaped through a back passage, and we lost visual of them once they were in the streets,” Smith said.
“Do you understand what a grave missed opportunity this was?” Enderson asked.
Smith nodded but kept his chin lifted.
Damien liked Smith. He was strong, intelligent, and confident. Even though Enderson was filling the role of commander of the CityWatch until a more long-term solution could be made, Smith was really the one pulling the strings, and Enderson was aware of how necessary Smith was to the cause. “An opportunity we will have again,” Damien said.
Enderson and Smith both turned their attention to the head of the table, where Damien sat. The rest of the table followed suit and waited.
“Remember, capturing all of the rebels is only part of the goal,” Damien said. “The larger part is reminding the people that being outside the city walls is not to be free, as the rebels have led them to believe.”
“But if we could obtain all of the rebels, there would be no need for anyone to flee the city,” Monroe Austin said.
“Do you really believe that shutting down this one group will ensure no further rebellion?” Damien asked.
“We lived in peace for decades without rebellion before Aaron and his Seers,” Walker Red said.
“A lie you were led to believe, as I have often said. The idea that you can control the human spirit simply by placing it inside rules is to ensure rebellion as an outcome,” Damien said.
“Then why execute the rebels so swiftly if it does us no good in the end?” Monroe asked.
“Because it does us good in the present. Both present and future beasts have to be tamed,” Damien rejoined. “So while we solve the problem of humanity’s need to be free, to be in charge, to think themselves above the pack, to act against their animalistic nature, fear is a powerful sedative for rebellion.”
The table grew quiet. Damien had slowly been introducing the idea of drastic change during the three months since he had taken office, and he saw many of the men before him nod in agreement. Softly treading through the minds of men who didn’t accept change easily was a delicate process. The switch necessary for a person to truly see the evil of humanity could easily induce panic and depression. Thankfully, Damien already had a solution, a way to save the world from its inherited issues.
“And how exactly do we solve the problem of humanity?” Monroe asked.
Damien paused to collect his thoughts. Monroe was among the last of the Authority members to buy into Damien’s way of thinking. He’d also been the only one to fight for Ian’s seat when the former leader was overthrown, and he remained hopeful regarding Dodson’s involvement in the rebel’s escape. If it weren’t for Monroe’s insistence that they have unwavering evidence against the previous CityWatch leader, Damien would have had Dodson executed weeks ago. Not to fear, that time was coming.
“You ask that question as if you believe there is no problem.” Damien calmly folded his hands on the table surface.
“Of course there is a problem; I just don’t see how the problem is anything other than Aaron and his Seers.”
“Aaron and those who follow him are the physical representation of the problem within man itself. We are seeing the same problem, my friend; you are just not allowing yourself to see the whole picture.”
Damien stood and began to pace slowly around the grand table. “Man’s insistence on clinging to self, to choice—that is our problem. It is man’s need for freedom that causes chaos and rebellion. It is the same issue that caused the conceptualization of the Prima Solution back before the Time of Ruin. To live longer, to be better, to have more, to place oneself above the rest of the population, to care solely about one’s own well-being. Selfishness, really, is at the root of chaos and rebellion.”
Damien watched a familiar agreement settle over most of the table. Even Monroe held his tongue, so he continued. “After the Time of Ruin, Robert Carson did away with man’s persistent allegiance to self, making everyone’s task to better serve the unit, the whole. And for a time it worked. Using fear and threats to keep people in line, Robert and God controlled the human disease.”
“And after doing away with the rebels and Aaron, we can just go back to the way things were before,” Monroe said. “The way that has worked for this community for decades.”
“And it may work for a while longer, using brute force and thin threats to dispose of those that step out of line. But then someone else like Aaron will come along and we will find ourselves right back where we are. Whether it happens in our lifetimes or in the lifetimes of our children, history has a wicked way of repeating itself,” Damien said. “Would it not be better to create a different future, ensuring that the cruel history we are reliving now cannot come back to haunt us? To ensure that when our sons sit at this table they won’t have to deal with executions and rebellions?”
Several members whispered to those closest to them and Damien hid a small smile. “We have the opportunity to change the world, to shape the future. We must do more than struggle to hold on to control that we will simply lose. Anything you can obtain can be taken away. This isn’t about forcing people to submit or convincing them with religion; this is about changing them permanently, doing away with the human disease altogether. Giving them a cure. Calling them into a higher level of existence.”
Damien paused to gauge his audience’s response to his words. Good, but not quite good enough. Perhaps an appeal to a higher power would help. He smiled. “We have been called, by God, to eradicate rebellion once and for all. We are the high priests, the chosen few, the soldiers in a larger war against humanity’s basest instincts. If we continue to do the same thing and expect different results, then we only leave a legacy of insanity.”
Damien knew at the end of the day Monroe would not stand against the collective. The Minister of Health and Wellness was still just a sheep trying to become a shepherd. Damien could feel the excited energy filling the room. Destiny was upon them; they were ready for the future. They were ready to be led. And as King Damien, he would lead them into a new era. His era.
5
Remko surveyed the old underground transportation tunnel as people moved around him, setting up camp for the night. The floor was concrete except for the two sets of long metal tracks that ran down the middle and disappeared into the distance in both directions. The walls and ceiling were rounded, shaped like the inside of a dome and covered with a lattice of metal and stone and cables that made Remko think of a honeycomb. A dim lighting system ran along the top of the curved ceiling. Wire had gotten the lights working pretty quickly, which was a nice change from some of the places they had been before. Firelight was hard to navigate by.
Tents were going up, and food was being sorted through and logged—but also cooked, which sent a sweet, warm smell through the air. Sam, Wire, and Kate had gone ahead of the group and radioed that it was safe for the rest to join. The three of them were still out, walking the long tunnels to see what they could find, to make sure they were secure.
Ramses and Lesley were helping direct camp setup so things got done efficiently and with as little chaos as possible, and Carrington had jumped in to help make sure people were getting fed and staying hydrated. She should be mourning, alone in her own space, letting the death of her best friend work its way through her system in a healthy way. But there wasn’t time for grieving; there wasn’t time for worki
ng things through, for space.
The camp was well on its way to being home for the night, and Remko decided to travel down the east side of the long underground system to set up his own perimeter. He let Ramses know where he was headed and, after kindly refusing his brother’s company, set off into the darkness.
The tunnel was peacefully quiet, the stillness of the air welcoming. He ventured deeper into the darkness, scanning the area around him, checking the walls, the slight openings, anything that might prove to be harmful. He let his mind spin around the events of the last twenty-four hours. He couldn’t get the final images of Larkin or Carrington’s painful cries out of his mind. He feared he never would. They would be a part of him now, like the execution of Arianna, the murder of his father by an enraged tradesman, the slow death of his mother from a broken heart, the assassination of his friend and fellow CityWatch guard Helms. They would all follow him, attached like warts. Marks of all his imperfections. He couldn’t help but wonder why the Seers were still following his lead after all the warts he’d collected.
But they did. They looked to him for guidance, waited on him to make moves, and followed. They believed his military background gave him some sort of authority in matters that he, truthfully, was terrified of. And people assumed that just as Carrington was completely convinced by and devoted to the teaching of Aaron, so was he.
The truth Remko believed was much simpler: he would do anything necessary to protect those he loved. He followed Aaron’s way because he had seen the effect it had on Carrington and Larkin. Because of the way Wire spoke about it and because of how it softened Kate’s heart and gave Sam strength. Because of the way it was changing Ramses’s and Lesley’s lives for the better. But Remko himself wasn’t sure he was completely convinced.
Remko respected the way Aaron loved and the simple peace he seemed to carry with him, but that love and peace were getting people killed.
“Searching for answers in the dark?” a voice asked.
A moment of panic pulsed in Remko’s gut before recognition of the voice filled his senses. His tense shoulders relaxed as he felt Aaron move from out of the shadows and to Remko’s side. “I learned long ago that the darkness never answers back,” Remko said.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Anything is possible with faith,” Aaron said.
Remko didn’t turn to face the man but kept his stare forward into the deep tunnel. “Even walking on water?”
Aaron chuckled. “So you have been listening.”
The man’s buoyancy was infectious, and Remko found a layer of cold begin to lift off his chest. But then thoughts of the last twenty-four hours reentered his mind and the cold only deepened. He turned toward Aaron. “We need to leave,” he said. “Being this close to the city becomes more dangerous with each passing day.”
Remko felt Aaron’s energy change.
“I heard her song from across the wilderness,” Aaron said. “‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’” Silence filled the space around them and Remko heard Larkin’s voice softly echoing through his memory.
“Beautiful, beautiful daughter,” Aaron said. Nearly a whisper, his eyes closed, his face lifted to the darkness around them. Tears streaming down his cheeks.
“How is Carrington?” Aaron asked at last.
Remko let the silence sit between them for a moment. “Broken.”
“The beautiful thing about brokenness is that it heals,” Aaron said. “I am so sorry you have to endure such pain, though.”
Remko felt the words in his core. “These are the risks we take,” he said, working to hide the emotion in his voice.
“I wish I could say taking risks was at an end,” Aaron said.
Remko turned his head, surprised, and gave Aaron a worried look. He knew that tone. “You want us to go back into the city?”
“Events are progressing quickly. Circumstances are changing. People are being called.”
“Then let them become Sleeper Seers and be our eyes and ears inside the walls. Is it nec . . . nec . . . necessary that they come here?” Remko dropped his head and bit the inside of his bottom lip. His stutter came so rarely these days that the sound of it brought back a rush of painful emotions. He could feel Aaron’s sympathetic gaze and wished he’d turn his eyes elsewhere.
“Does it always return with the fear?” Aaron asked.
Remko hesitated and took a deep breath. He quieted his raging brain and stilled his heart before he spoke. “No; it comes and goes as it wishes.”
“You could be free of it all, you know.”
Remko ignored Aaron’s last statement and changed course. “I need to understand what we are still doing here, so close to those that wish us harm. Why can’t we leave, set out to find a place that we can call our own?”
“And you believe that running away will somehow free you of your fear?”
“We would be safe.”
“From whom?”
“From our enemies. From the Authority.”
Aaron paused. “Is that who you believe the enemy is?”
Remko could feel heat rising to his face. He was responsible for protecting his family, but Aaron was keeping them in a constant state of threat. How was Remko supposed to respond to that? “More will die,” he said.
“I never wanted pain for anyone.” Aaron’s voice was mournful. “I wish I could save them, but I can only lead.”
“Then lead us away from here.”
“The city needs to be changed, Remko. How can we change it if we leave?”
“So we stay and put our lives at risk until every last person inside those walls is changed?”
“I know it isn’t ideal.”
“Not ideal? It’s madness!”
“Remko, you must have faith. We are called to save not one but all.”
That was the problem. Remko didn’t believe. He didn’t have Aaron’s faith, and he wasn’t even sure that faith—the faith everyone around him was clinging to—was real. He sighed and closed his eyes. He recalled all the times he’d had this conversation with Aaron. All the times he’d urged Carrington to try and reason with him. Each time the response was the same. And each time Remko followed Aaron’s lead, because he’d been assured by many that without Aaron they would all be lost. Though he was less sure of that now. But this was the course, the path he found himself walking.
“Who is it this time?” Remko asked.
“A family, three in total,” Aaron said.
“When are they expecting us?”
“In two days.”
Remko fought against his anger and the silent fear that was rumbling inside his chest.
“I know you don’t agree with these tactics, and I understand your frustration. You enslave yourself with expectations. But freedom is within reach.”
Remko had little interest in Aaron’s version of freedom right now. He felt the weight of weariness fall over him. “I’m going to head back. Will I see you there?”
Aaron shook his head. “I came only to speak with you for now.” With that, he started off into the tunnel’s expansive darkness.
Remko called after him. “People need you in camp. Why vanish all the time? Where do you go?”
“Nowhere,” Aaron said. “I never really leave.”
Remko could feel his frustration envelop him, and he didn’t want to say something he would regret. He turned to head for camp before he lost control of his emotions.
“Remko,” Aaron called.
Remko hesitantly looked over his shoulder.
“Things are beginning to change inside the city, and they will change within the Seers as well. It will get darker before we see light again. Know that at any point if the load you are carrying becomes too heavy, you can let it go.”
Aaron held Remko’s gaze for a long breath before he turned and faded into the dark.
Damien paced across the small office floor. There was hardly enough space to take four steps in either direction before he was forced to turn around and r
eturn the way he had come. The room was overflowing with aged collections of Old America textbooks, pages ripped out and hung for display, taped or pinned to the walls and windows, marked and underlined. A row of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined the back wall, stuffed with more written works and a large assortment of plastic models displaying parts of the body—the brain, heart, stomach, liver. All of them completely unnecessary since Authority scientists and medical workers had access to 3-D projected images that gave better insight into the working functionality of the body, so the outdated models sat collecting dust.
A single table stood in the middle of the room, too wide for the space. It was covered with an arrangement of test tubes, measuring beakers, Bunsen burners, volumetric flasks, and microspatulas; all of which hadn’t been touched in years. Graphs and charts covered most of the floor, and the single chair that may at one time have been used for sitting was now the resting place of a box filled with rolled paper manuscripts.
The entire place still gave Damien a twitch, but he had spent a significant amount of time learning to ignore his tendency to burn everything useless. He glanced up at the quiet man who stood staring out the small square of uncovered windowpane and waited. Damien could tell the Scientist was deep in thought from the way he slightly nodded his head as he pondered.
Dr. Roth Reynard was one of the most forward-thinking minds of his time. He possessed the unique ability to see past the limitations of reality and envision what could be. Damien’s father had warned him that the Scientist’s way of thinking was a danger to the community and a threat to the well-being of the city, but Damien had always been fascinated with the ideas and vision of the mysterious doctor.
As a teen, Damien had gone against his father’s direction and secretly spent time under the Scientist’s tutelage. Exploring the secrets of the mind in order to gain a better understanding of the functionality of the brain. The Scientist said the brain was the singular area that controlled the entirety of a person’s existence. To understand it was to be in control of oneself, and with enough understanding, one could control others.
The Calling Page 5
